The council has launched a public consultation into proposals to change admissions arrangements to the borough’s primary and secondary schools.

School places are currently allocated to some pupils based on their proximity to the school. This is measured using the shortest distance they would have to walk to the school along roads that have street lighting.

The new proposal is that this way of measuring the distance is replaced with a simple straight line “as the crow flies” measurement from their home to the school gates.

This has the advantage of being much simpler and easier to understand. Making this change would give parents a much better idea of the chances of their child being offered a place at a particular school.

If the changes are approved following the consultation, they would come into effect at the beginning of the 2013/14 academic year.